Doped semiconductor nanocrystal junctions

Abstract

Semiconductor junctions are the basis of electronic and photovoltaic devices. Here, we investigate junctions formed from highly doped (ND≈1020−1021cm−3) silicon nanocrystals (NCs) in the 2–50 nm size range, using Kelvin probe force microscopy experiments with single charge sensitivity. We show that the charge transfer from doped NCs towards a two-dimensional layer experimentally follows a simple phenomenological law, corresponding to formation of an interface dipole linearly increasing with the NC diameter. This feature leads to analytically predictable junction properties down to quantum size regimes: NC depletion width independent of the NC size and varying as ND−1/3, and depleted charge linearly increasing with the NC diameter and varying as ND1/3. We thus establish a “nanocrystal counterpart” of conventional semiconductor planar junctions, here however valid in regimes of strong electrostatic and quantum confinements.